The farmer said they had had a big funeral out of Memphis, but when it reached his house, the coffin was found to contain a fine assortment of medicines for the use of Van Dorn's army.

Thus under the pretense of a first-class funeral, they had carried through our guards the very things we had tried to prevent.

It was a good trick, but diminished our respect for such pageants afterward.
As soon as I was in possession of General Grant's instructions of December 8th, with a further request that I should dispatch Colonel Grierson, with his cavalry, across by land to Helena, to notify General Steele of the general plan, I returned to College Hill, selected the division of Brigadier-General Morgan L.Smith to return with me to Memphis; started Grierson on his errand to Helena, and ordered Generals Denver and Lauman to report to General Grant for further orders.

We started back by the most direct route, reached Memphis by noon of December 12th, and began immediately the preparations for the Vicksburg movement.

There I found two irregular divisions which had arrived at Memphis in my absence, commanded respectively by Brigadier-General A.J.